I joined soldiers of 1 Royal Anglian Regiment a few days ago on a patrol outside their Kajaki base.

The Taliban had launched a rocket attack on the base at teatime and been repelled by British mortars.

I watched as a Nato plane dropped several 1,000lb bombs in a terrifying raid on the Taliban just a few miles away.

In the early hours of the morning, we walked deep into enemy territory. A senior officer said: "It's not a question of if we will be attacked - but when. And that'll probably happen at dawn. Then we will kill some or all of them and walk back to base.

"It's that predictable - this is now a proper war." As the sun came up, we entered a supposedly deserted village. Dead on 6am there was a crack of AK47 rounds and rocketpropelled grenades smashed into a wall. An officer radioed for urgent air-support. Minutes later, an A10 tankbuster strafed and killed a small force of Taliban gunmen.

But the fact that two F15s were used yesterday and that a huge bomb was dropped so close to our troops indicated the Taliban threat may have been much bigger.

But there is no doubt that Nato planes and helicopters have saved many British lives this summer, constantly rescuing ground forces.